More than a million children in the UK are classed as using English as an additional language (EAL) and use languages other than English in their daily lives. However for the most part we as artistic, cultural, educational and community organisations are not very good at understanding the implications of that and the opportunities it can offer. Words like 'bilingual' and 'home language' don't do justice to the complex, interrelated ways that many young people blend languages together in different parts of their lives. Join us to discuss how organisations working in this area can further explore and celebrate multilingualism in their work.

Free Word and partners invite you to take part in its very first “Multilingual Creativity Lab”

Monday 30 November 2015

09.15 – 19.00

Free Word Centre, Farringdon

This is a call for expressions of interest

The Lab will be a day of presentations, workshops and discussions on creative approaches to engaging with and promotingmultilingual skills, and will feature case studies from Pop Up, Translation Nation, Brave New Words (English PEN), (M)Other Tongues (Arvon), Creative Connections (Goldsmiths) and Coney. We’re inviting representatives from a cross-section of organisations in the education, library and arts sectors to join us for this exploration. Come and share your expertise and experiences to inform practice for the future.

If you’re interested in taking part, please email rsvp@freewordcentre.com with an expression of interest by 17 July 2015. Further details will follow in early September.

The day is being produced by Free Word in partnership with teacher and education researcher Sam Holmes, literary translator and curator of translation programmes Sarah Ardizzone and Director of the Stephen Spender Trust Robina Pelham Burn, supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.